"One year will be enough."

Merlin burst out laughing at the boy’s ambition. His declaration that he would break even Arthur’s record did not offend her. It was good to aim high.

"Good. That’s what I wanted to hear."

She would have been disappointed if he had complained instead. Merlin let out a long breath. He had secured his initial funds and found somewhere to stay. The stage was set for him to begin his work in earnest.

In other words, the groundwork was laid.

He no longer had to scramble simply to survive from day to day. Now that he had the breathing room to look ahead and prepare for tomorrow, Merlin was certain the time was right.

"How much do you know about mana?"

Knowledge of mana and a training method—these were what the boy had lacked.

This was the perfect time to teach him.

* * *

Mana: energy accumulated within the body.

Najin did not know much about it. No one had ever taught him. He had merely gained an intuitive understanding by watching the mana users around him.

"Almost nothing."

Najin answered Merlin’s question honestly. Somehow, he had learned to wield mana and produce sword aura, but if asked how those processes worked, he could not have answered.

‘An instinct that doing it this way should work.’

He was wielding mana through instinct alone, rather than knowledge. Merlin, who had observed him for a little over ten days, knew that too.

"True. You’ve been relying on your senses," Merlin said.

"There’s nothing wrong with wielding mana intuitively. If anything, it proves you have an innate gift. But if you rely on your senses alone without accurate knowledge, there are clear limits to what you can do."

Basic theory and knowledge.

"Whatever you do, it’s important to understand what you’re doing. That goes for swordsmanship, magic, and mana alike."

Merlin explained that understanding those fundamentals would allow him to use mana in broader and more varied ways. Najin listened closely. She was giving him knowledge that no one had ever taught him before.

‘And above all...’ Najin thought.

He sometimes nearly forgot, but the person speaking to him about mana was none other than the great mage Merlin: a constellation of eleven stars, a woman called a great mage in countless heroic tales.

Najin recalled the many, many titles used to describe her. The first mage to attain the Mysteries, the great sage who reached the Truth, the wise woman who grasped the essence of mana, and so on. Merlin had delved deeper into mana and magic than anyone else in history.

Just as Arthur had left his mark on the history of the sword, Merlin had written the foundations of magical scholarship.

‘Someone of that stature.’

And she was teaching him about mana.

He was receiving, free of charge, a lesson that no fortune could buy. Najin had no intention of letting this opportunity slip away. He concentrated on every word Merlin said.

"Mages and swordsmen may wield mana differently, but the process of accumulating it is essentially similar. The distinction lies in how they use it."

Swordsmen used accumulated mana to strengthen their bodies and produce sword aura. Mages used it to form circles and inscribe circuits upon their souls.

"So I’m going to teach you a mana training method."

A mana training method: a way to build up mana within the body.

"Originally, I was going to start by opening pathways in your body and teaching you to draw in mana..."

Merlin gave an incredulous laugh.

"But you already know how to wield mana, don’t you?"

"Intuitively, yes. I know how."

"Right. Ridiculous as it is, you’ve already opened the pathways in your body. That’s harder than accumulating mana. Where on earth did you learn it?"

"That’s exactly the way Arthur did it."

Najin tilted his head at Merlin’s muttered words. Rather than learning it anywhere, he had simply read a storybook and followed what it said.

"You copied it after reading a few absurd passages?"

"Yes."

"You’re driving me crazy. Honestly."

Merlin sighed as though even being surprised had become exhausting. Whatever his methods, Najin’s body already had pathways for mana to flow through.

All that remained was to accumulate mana within it.

To Merlin, the boy’s body, with pathways formed much like Arthur’s, was a perfectly prepared blank canvas. For now, it was merely a vast, open field... but from this point onward, he would build upon it a tower taller and sturdier than any other.

"Shall we start with breathing techniques?"

Upon that broad field, Merlin laid the foundation stone of the tower they would now begin to build.

2.

"Take a long breath in."

"Let the flow into your body, just as you normally do."

Najin followed Merlin’s instructions. He felt the flow settle within his body.

"Good. Yes, you’re doing fine up to the point of taking the flow into your body. But you only use it for a moment before dumping it straight onto the ground. How should I explain this?" Merlin said.

"You’re scooping up a bucketful of water, then pouring it all onto the ground. Of course, that’s no problem if you only need it for that brief moment... but you won’t make any progress that way."

"Then what should I do?"

"It’s simple." She smiled.

"Don’t pour out what you’ve scooped up right away. Let it slowly seep into your body. Try holding on for as long as you can."

Until now, Najin had used mana only in short, momentary bursts. But Merlin was telling him to maintain that state for a long time.

One minute, three minutes... then five.

At five minutes, cold sweat ran down Najin’s back. His body ached, and his nose stung. Another minute passed, and blood began dripping from his nose. Pain assailed him, as though knives were slashing every part of his body.

"Stop."

At Merlin’s warning, Najin released the breath he had been holding.

"Ghk, cough!"

His throat burned. Flecks of blood came up with his coughs. Unable to withstand the pain, Najin collapsed spread-eagled in his room.

"The longer you hold mana inside you, the more it seeps into your body. That’s what you just did. Of course, it hurts like hell."

"It hurts... so much... I think I’m going to die...?"

Barely able to breathe properly, Najin forced the words out. Merlin grinned at his voice.

"Of course it hurts. Normally, people never accumulate mana this way. Usually, they take an elixir and focus on retaining the pure mana it puts into their bodies without letting any escape..."

Otherwise...

"They absorb refined mana from places like mana springs or sanctuaries kept hidden by their families or organizations. They don’t do this. If you try accumulating raw mana drifting around in the wild, your body gets completely wrecked from the inside out."

Najin’s eyes widened as he listened.

"Wait, then this is the wrong method—"

"You don’t have the money to buy elixirs or the connections to use sacred sites or mana springs. This is your best option. Besides, you can afford to have your body wrecked a little, can’t you?"

What kind of bullshit was that?

Was she treating him like this because it wasn’t her body? Before Najin could ask, Merlin answered.

"You have Excalibur."

"... I do?"

"Since you don’t have a star, most of Excalibur’s functions will be locked... but you still have its healing power, don’t you?"

The healing power Excalibur granted him.

Najin knew what Merlin meant. It had already helped him enormously while he was on the run in the underground city.

"It may not be enough to heal external wounds instantly yet, but it should heal internal injuries quickly. It did for Arthur."

The method Merlin was teaching Najin was the mana training method Arthur had originally used. When he had nothing, Arthur had built up his mana by wrecking his own body—a raw training method of sheer, staggering brute force.

"Tear and heal, tear and heal. In the process, your body is reconstructed to be perfectly suited to holding mana. Thinking about it again, it really is ridiculously crude..."

Merlin smiled mischievously.

"But in terms of efficiency, it’s incredible."

"It hurts like hell, though."

"You’ll just have to bear it. What else can you do?"

"We all learned this way back in my day."

Muttering that youngsters these days were so weak they relied on easy options like sanctuaries and elixirs, Merlin continued.

"Training is supposed to be hard and grueling. If it’s easy, how is that training? You’re just getting shit handed to you."

Najin frowned.

"What an old fossil..."

"What did you say?"

Groaning, Najin rolled over. After a few minutes, he could at least move again. With his back against the wall, he slowly steadied his breathing.

"Should I keep doing this?"

"Keep it to a short session every morning. With this sort of thing, consistency over time matters more than building it all up at once."

"And," Merlin added, "accumulating mana alone won’t make you strong, will it?"

Najin realized what she was getting at.

"You want me to go outside and exercise?"

"Yes. That will help it seep in faster."

"My whole body aches just from breathing."

"I told you, training has to hurt. If it doesn’t hurt, how is it training?"

Fucking hell...

"Urrgh."

With a groan, Najin hauled himself upright. His legs trembled, but he still followed Merlin’s instructions and got moving.

Arthur must have trained this way too.

And he had to surpass that Arthur.

Reminding himself of his goal, Najin drove his body onward. Sword in hand, he left the inn, took his stance in an empty lot, and began swinging. As he practiced, his expression grew troubled.

It brought back old memories.

Even in the underground city, Najin had gone out to an empty lot every morning to swing his sword. And there had always been a teacher there, cradling a bottle of liquor and dispensing advice.

["That’s not how you swing a sword."]

["Keep your eyes on the tip all the way through."]

["You won’t get anywhere swinging at random. Focus on your stance. Pay attention to your breathing."]

Offen’s voice lingered in Najin’s ears.

Here, he had no teacher to watch his swings and offer advice, but he kept practicing in silence, recalling the guidance Offen had left him.

SWISH.

Only the quiet sound of the boy’s sword slicing through the air echoed across the deserted lot.

3.

Najin first felt a change on the fourth day.

He had been drawing in mana every day as Merlin had taught him, then training with his insides in turmoil. Now, he noticed that his body had changed.

He felt lighter and moved faster than usual.

His sword swings had become noticeably quicker, and every step was full of strength. Even without drawing in the flow to reinforce his body, he was moving faster than he had a few days earlier. Najin was impressed.

‘It certainly works.’

He could see his growth. Four days of coughing up blood and tearing his body apart had been worth it. With that thought, Najin swung his sword a little more diligently.

"Whew..."

After finishing his training, Najin washed off the sweat with water he had drawn earlier. As he washed, he happened to glance at the mirror. Come to think of it, should he have disguised himself? The Order’s pursuers would know what he looked like.

While Najin was pondering that question, Merlin was thinking about something else entirely.

She studied his upper body in the mirror. It was covered in small scars. In particular, a long scar, seemingly left by a sword, marked his shoulder.

Small scars, and sharply defined lean muscle visible between them.

These were muscles forged in actual combat, something those who rested on their talent could never obtain. Merlin privately marveled at them.

To be honest, she had been worried.

Najin’s talent and rate of growth were on an entirely different plane from those of ordinary people. Merlin had thought that, like so many geniuses, he must have leaped to his current level without laying a proper foundation.

But what did a closer look reveal?

His foundation was more than solid enough.

Merlin smiled in satisfaction at a body honed well enough to withstand grueling training. Because his foundation was so sound, the effects of a proper training method were appearing immediately.

With both the conditions and the foundation already in place, the boy had only been waiting to soar.

As Merlin considered Najin’s steeply rising growth curve, she pondered what to do. She could teach him how to wield mana and train his body at a basic level, but...

"Swordsmanship is the problem."

Swordsmanship. That was precisely the problem.

Merlin was a mage through and through. Although she had watched Arthur and the knights of the Round Table practice their swordsmanship at close quarters, she lacked the martial talent to teach it.

The boy was not a mage, but a swordsman—a swordsman who would wield Excalibur.

Naturally, accumulating and manipulating mana alone would not bring him to the level of Sword Seeker. To attain that realm, he had to understand the sword as a weapon and grasp the subtleties of its use.

"I have something in mind for that," Najin said as he dried himself and changed his clothes.

"You know how I’ve been going back and forth to the guild lately?"

Najin had yet to be recognized as a proper mercenary. He needed a minimum record of achievements before he could take on real commissions, so for the past three days he had been running the guild’s petty errands.

Perhaps wiping out a band of goblins had earned him particularly high marks. Last night, the guild had dyed his nameplate black. That meant he was now a Black-rank mercenary, qualified to undertake proper commissions.

"There still aren’t many I can take, but..."

Najin set out and arrived at the guild.

"I can accept private commissions now."

Commissions posted by individuals rather than the guild.

Among them was one Najin had his eye on. The pay was not particularly good, so others rarely chose it. To Najin, however, it was an attractive offer.

『Porter Wanted to Transport Monster Corpses.』

It was a simple commission: accompany a hunt and carry the corpses. What mattered, however, was the background of the person who had posted it.

『Sword Expert of the Order of the Sword.』

『Mid-Ranking Priest Volkman.』

The Order of the Sword was a gathering of seekers who pursued only the path of the sword, people who had sworn to devote their lives to honing their swordsmanship.

In other words...

‘People who’ve mastered swordsmanship.’

Najin smiled.

He reached out and took the commission sheet. Of course, it said nothing about this priest, Volkman, teaching him swordsmanship...

But what did that matter?

If he saw it, he could find a way to imitate it.